You know when you read back on something and go 'Wow. My writing sucked so bad at the start of this fic. I mean, it isn't that good now but it's better.' So basically what I'm saying is thank you for reading this fic when it wasn't as well written. Aren't you all glad it's improved slightly? And apologies, I am a shitty updater, we all know.

Tsuna began to dread going to school again. Everyone was just so...weird and Gokudera was becoming full on, even going to so far as to pull out Tsuna's chair for him to sit on and he didn't like it. Tsuna wasn't special, he was average, and wanted to feel exactly that. He was just a normal, little boy.

"Tsu-kun, time to get up~" his mother chimed.

The brunette groaned and rolled over. He seriously did not want to go to school.
"Tsu-kun, are you alright? Is that headache back again?" his mother asked, worried.

Tsuna thought about telling his mother the truth, that he was perfectly fine. Then he thought of the evasion, the royal treatment and Kyoya's strangely satisfied persona and he simply wished to stay in bed."It hurts," he moaned.

"Awwww," Nana cooed, "I'll get you some painkillers sweetie."

"Wait!"

Nana halted in the doorway. "Yes?"

"I-I just want to sl-sleep it off," Tsuna stuttered.

Nana inclined her head, nodding lightly. "Of course Tsu-kun."

Then Tsuna was left alone, huddled up in his bed, contemplating how he could go about regaining little to no status within the class once more.

Tsuna's day passed in abject boredom. There was nothing to entertain him, no toys that held his interest, no kids shows playing in the middle of the day and no friend's to alleviate his current mood. His current mood referring to the mind numbing and perpetually irksome feeling of being completely indifferent to everything.

The next day Tsuna greeted school with open arms, class might make him feel uncomfortable but it was better than doing absolutely nothing.

The kindergarten crowd eagerly parted for him as he hesitantly made his way to the classroom. Looks like word had spread about his position. He liked preschool less and less.

As soon as he spotted Kyoya the brunette instantly marched to his side. Kyoya might be strange but he was the only person who was treating him with any semblance of normality. Unless in the time he wasn't there Kyoya had changed?-!

"Hey," he greeted timidly, testing the waters.

"Hello Tsuna," Hibari replied with a smile.

The brunette lit up. What was he thinking? Of course the ebony haired preschooler was the same, it had only been a day! He'd always be Tsuna's friend...his first ever friend.

The two then sat down with each other, a mildly awkward silence filling the space between them. They both had a surprisingly lack of things to say to each other, even with all the drama surrounding them, and more specifically Tsuna.

"Sooo..." the brunette drawled as a sudden crop of silver hair appeared in his peripheral vision.

"Tsuna!" Gokudera exclaimed, "you're back!"

He smiled slowly, slightly intimidated by Gokudera's overwhelming eagerness. "Yeah."

The silverette pulled up a chair, a brightness in his eyes as he gazed at Tsuna, something akin to admiration and loyalty surfacing in his those two big bright green orbs.

Fon arrived soon after that and the day flew. As per usual lunch rolled around at 12:05pm. At lunch, because of how nice a day it was, Tsuna, Hibari and Gokudera decided to play outside. This was their first mistake.

The years in the preschool were not separated. So sometimes they had to get along with people who were younger or older than them -or at least stay out of their way- and most of the time it wasn't a problem. However, when two slightly older students approached them, Tsuna could tell there was going to be a problem.

"Which one of you's is Sawada Tsunayoshi?" a blonde toddler questioned loudly.

The brunette was not quick to respond. The blonde kid was emitting a wholly unpleasant aura and the other one simply looked...neutral. He didn't look aggressive or even bored. He was just neutral.

"I'm Tsunayo-yos...Tsuna."

"My name is Ken and this is Chikusa and I'm here to challenge you!" they announced proudly, puffing up their chest.

Tsuna shied away. Challenge? Wasn't that like fight? He didn't want to fight anyone, fighting was bad! This boy was also older than him, and by the looks of it stronger, even if they did fight there was no way he could win! But...then there was that. The fire that protected him from getting hurt. Maybe now was a good chance to test it out? See if it really did exist? If it did help him?

Despite the gut wrenching feeling that he should not at all be accepting this challenge he opened his mouth and blurted out possibly the worst agreement to a fight Ken had ever heard. "I-I accept...your c-c-challenge...I suppose."

Hibari and Gokudera stood there, gobsmacked. Shouldn't they be getting a teacher or something? Tsuna was going to fight some crazy, older blonde kid. This whole situation did not bode well and seemed like it would end terribly.

"Tsuna, you shouldn't-" Gokudera started.

"No! I can take care of myself. I'm a big boy. I'll fight someone if I wanna," Tsuna said, attempting to look tough.

Gokudera and Hibari exchanged troubled looks. Tsuna wasn't going to listen to either of them no matter what they said. All they could do was sit back and watch as the brunette engaged in a battle he was bound to lose.

"So are we fighting or not?" the blonde asked, annoyed.

"Of course we are!" Tsuna replied, sounding more confident than he felt. He was sure this would summon those flames.

Chikusa, Kyoya and Gokudera stepped back, allowing Ken and Tsuna more room. If they couldn't stop the fight may as well stick around and see how it went.

Ken smirked at Tsuna as the little brunette tried to prevent himself from shaking. He wasn't scared. He shouldn't be scared. The blonde preschooler wasn't nearly as scary as the man who had broke into his house. Tsuna could defeat this boy so long as he had his flames by his side.

The blonde preschooler rushed at Tsuna, fist at the ready. The brunette stood perfectly still. His flames would save him, his flames would save him, his flames would save him, his flames woul-

Extreme pressure followed by searing pain in his left cheek. He fell to the ground and curled up in a ball, starting to cry. Why hadn't his flames protected him? Where had they gone?

He left out a long, low wail. His cheek hurt. He wanted to go home.

Tsuna felt the blonde kick him in the shin. "What the 'ell, since you were the ninth's grandson I thought you'd be strong."

"Oi, you, get away from Tsuna!" he heard Kyoya snarl.

He opened his eyes just in time to see Hibari charge towards Ken with a thick branch in his hand, succeeding in whacking the older preschooler in the stomach; sending him into the ground completely winded.

Kyoya rushed over to Tsuna. "Are you okay?"

He wasn't okay. He got up off the ground, wrapping his hands around Hibari's shoulders, crying still.

When was it that Kyoya started protecting him? It couldn't have been more than a week ago when his friend would have gone whining to their teacher about this, unable to do anything. The Kyoya he got to know wasn't strong, he was timid. Now look at him. He'd defeated that person in the blink of an eye. Kyoya had changed way more than he'd originally thought. The thought made him cry harder. What if the new Kyoya didn't like him as much?

"Kyoya, a-are you still my f-fwiend?" Tsuna sobbed.

"Of course I am, why else would I hit that bully with a stick?" he replied, hugging Tsuna back.

Alas this whole incident did not go unseen and two teachers swiftly intervened, helping the now livid Ken up from the ground and ushering them all into the building where they were given a very stern talking to. In the end they were all only kids and their punishment wasn't too terrible, just that they weren't allowed out at lunch for the next month or so. However their parents were contacted and they were sent home from school early. Obviously this didn't go down well for any of the children, Tsuna especially. Hibari, Ken, Chikusa and Gokudera's parents were all accustomed to some form of fighting and had expected their children to emulate this part of their lives but Tsuna's parents (or parent rather, Iemitsu had seen his fair share of battles) hated fighting. For Tsuna to agree to a fight showed bad parenting on their part, at least in their minds.

"Tsuna do you realize the seriousness of what you've done?" Nana asked on the way home, eyes focused firmly forward.

"I do now…" Tsuna mumbled in reply.

He was not having a good day. At all. The brunette wasn't in the mood to deal with anyone else's displeasure, not when his cheek hurt almost as much as his heart. Not crying at the moment was his main focus and no matter how angry his mother was at him he simply couldn't find it in him to care too much.

"I really don't think you're seeing the seriousness of this. Are you doing this because you don't want to be in preschool? Is this like that time you bit that boy so you would be sent home? Speak to me Tsuna, because I don't see how my sweet little boy would be getting into fight with boys a whole year older than him for no reason," Nana urged.

"…It seemed like it couldn't go too badly at the time. It was him who started it," Tsuna grumbled. He wanted to be home already.

There was silence for a few minutes as they rounded the corner and sped down their street.

"I should have never been convinced to put you back in Preschool, Tsuna I'm taking you out of school again. You're such a good boy then you go to school and it's like you've become an animal!" Nana exclaimed.

"NO! Mama I don't want to leave school, I have friends now!" Tsuna screeched, sobbing once more, "please I'll be good in school, I won't cause any problems, Mama please let me go to school!"

Nana kept a mostly straight face as she parked the car. "I'll have a talk with your father about this and see what he says."

"Mama please," Tsuna sobbed, crying irrationally all the way from the car into the house.

He wanted to be able to see Kyoya as much as he could. Even if school was difficult and the people were weird. He couldn't lose his first friend so soon after meeting him.

"Alright, alright, I think someone needs to take a nap and calm down while I speak with your father," Nana soothed.

"I'm…not tired," Tsuna hiccuped, his eyes already drooping.

Nana retrieved a blanket and set the drowsy toddler up for a nap on the couch. Tsuna fought against sleep but it quickly overwhelmed him and he was drawn into the land of dreams.

As Tsuna slept his mother and father discussed Tsuna's fate.

"Nana, really, I think you're being a bit over dramatic here, he's a kid, he's bound to have a fight or two at some stage. He didn't even start this one."

"I think you're being a little under dramatic. What if he begins to start fights?-! What if instead of being my baby boy he becomes my baby thug!-?"

"Darling, I really thinks it's high time you stopped babying the boy so much. Taking him out of school after one little incident is too much."

"Babying him? He is still a baby! And this isn't a 'little' incident at all."

"Nana he's never going to grow up to be able to fend for himself if you continue to be so over-protective of him. What about if he gets into a fight when he's 16? Will you pull him out of school then too?"

"That's entirely different Iemitsu and you know it and I'm not overprotective of him! I am expressing the normal level of concern that any mother in this situation would be experiencing."

"Most mothers wouldn't take their son out of school because of ONE FIGHT!"

Tsuna awoke, bleary eyed, to the sound of his father shouting. Shedding the hot blanket he crept silently to the kitchen, peeking in through a crack in the door to see his mother and father on their feet, staring each other down.

"I'm not sure you're entitled to an opinion, you only seem to take interest in your son when it suits you. Who is it who bathes him and helps him dress and reminds him to brush his and packs his lunch every day? Hmm?"

"Who is it that's out working, putting a roof over his head and paying for those lunches? Hmm?"

"That's low and you know it Iemitsu. I'm talking about the nights where you come home and you act like he doesn't exist. Or the months where you disappear without a word to either of us."

"Work can take a lot out of me at times Nana, I've told you this time and time again. He won't remember any of it when he's older anyway. And I said to expect me disappearing, mining takes me to places with no phone reception, landline or post office and I won't always be able to inform you prior to those disappearance. It's the quick or the dead in the mining industry."

"I'm sorry," Nana said, easing herself into one of the kitchen chairs, head in her hands, "sometimes it's just hard."

Tsuna pushed the door open and made his way to his mother's side, tugging on her sleeve. She looked down at him, tears in her eyes. He motioned 'up' and Nana quickly complied, hugging him close to his chest as he wrapped his arms around her neck. He had no idea what to say but he felt what he did was enough.

Iemitsu stood, stony faced. The mafia wasn't as breathtaking as it had been when he was young and wild and foolish. Now it was a part of him and he a part of it. There was no way to separate himself from the sticky mass of honeycomb violence.

OMAKE

It was an entirely average and rather uneventful weekend Xanxus was having. So at precisely 2:30pm he took a walk in order to find the store that sold the particular kind of liquorice sticks he enjoyed. It was on this walk that he ran into the self-proclaimed prince, Belpheghor. Naturally Xanxus tried to avoid the innate psychopath. However, when Belpheghor saw this he made his sole mission in life to disrupt Xanxus's walk.

"Ushishishi, what's happening?"

"Nothing. Go away trashy prince," Xanxus replied bitingly, scowling.

Bel smirked. "Heard from Squalo you were wondering if your face was scary."

"And what business of yours is that?" Fucking shark couldn't keep his trap shut for more than five minutes. He just had to blab about everything to everyone who could be bothered to endure his voice.

"I wanted you to know you'd look prettier with blood on your face," Bel said, pulling out a knife from god knows where and licking it from hilt to tip. Nothing appeared the matter for a moment, but when blood began to drip from Belpheghor's closed mouth, Xanxus realized something had gone horribly wrong.

Then the blonde haired prince didn't just start yelling... He started screeching. "HOLY FUCKING SHIT, I LICKED THE WRONG SIDE, MY TONGUE IS BLEEDING, IT'S SPILT, SOMEONE CALL A FUCKING AMBULANCE, I'M GOING TO HAVE A SNAKE TONGUE."

Of course Xanxus simply side stepped the prince of drama and continued on his journey. It wasn't even bleeding that much.